Rate of suspension 3x higher for black students at Mystic Valley, mirroring state numbers

Wednesday

May 24, 2017 at 11:42 AMMay 24, 2017 at 12:05 PM

Aaron Leibowitz aleibowitz@wickedlocal.com @AaronInMalden

Mystic Valley Regional Charter School, under fire for a policy that bans hair extensions, has suspended black students at three times the rate of white students since 2012, according to data from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

It's a disparity noted in a letter from Genevieve C. Nadeau of the Attorney General's Office to the school asking that it cease enforcement of the hair extensions policy. "While black students make up less than 18 percent of the MVRCS student body, they make up more than 38 percent of students disciplined for all offenses," Nadeau notes in the letter.

This disparity has been consistent across the four school years for which DESE has tracked disciplinary data, with black student suspension rates between 2.8 and 3.2 times those of white students in each of the four years.

During that time, from 2012-13 to 2015-16, 11.5 percent of all African-American or black students attending the K-12 school in Malden served either an in-school or out-of-school suspension. Just 3.9 percent of white students served a suspension during the same span.

A separate report from the U.S. Department of Education shows that, in 2013-14, black students accounted for 16.7 percent of Mystic Valley's nearly 1,500 students but served 40.3 percent of its 67 in-school suspensions and 54.8 percent of its 31 out-of-school suspensions.

In 2014-15 and 2015-16, when DESE began collecting data on school days missed due to suspensions, each of the two Mystic Valley students suspended for more than 10 days was black.

But while Mystic Valley suspends a relatively high percentage of its students overall -- 5.5 percent of all K-12 students were suspended last year, versus 4.3 percent statewide -- the school's racial disparity actually mirrors statewide numbers.

The suspension rate for black students in Massachusetts was 9.3 percent in 2015-16, more than three times that of white students (2.7 percent).

Disparities can also be found in the public school districts that lose students to Mystic Valley -- in Malden, the suspension rate last year was 1.5 percent for black students and 0.8 percent for white students; in Medford, it was 5.4 percent for black students and 1.8 percent for white students; and in Melrose, it was 1.7 percent for black students and 0.4 percent for white students.

Mystic Valley does hand out a relatively high proportion of its suspensions for non-drug, non-violent, non-criminal related offenses, compared to the rest of the commonwealth. Last year, 24 of Mystic Valley's 32 suspensions of black students fell within this category, as did 25 of 35 suspensions of white students and 58 of 83 suspensions (70 percent) overall.

Statewide, fewer than half of all suspensions were for non-drug, non-violent, non-criminal related offenses.

But other districts in the region, much like Mystic Valley, skew toward a high percentage of non-criminal related suspensions -- 57 of 61 in Malden, 82 of 109 in Medford, and 13 of 19 in Melrose.

DESE does not collect data on detentions, making it difficult to ascertain exactly how Mystic Valley's dress code and hair policy, the subject of recent controversy over several disciplined students, are enforced.

In a letter to families Sunday, the school asserted that its hair policy -- which also bans shaved sides and, though no longer enforced, hair more than two inches in height -- could withstand a legal challenge, and said there is data showing that the policy has been implemented equitably.

An email and phone call to a school spokesperson Tuesday, asking where this data can be found, had not been returned by Wednesday morning. Mystic Valley also did not respond to a request for comment on the racial disparities in its suspension rates.

On May 12, the Boston-based Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Economic Justice submitted a public records request to Mystic Valley, seeking data on how the hair policy is enforced. The request calls on Mystic Valley to reveal the number of out-of-school suspensions, detentions, and office referrals made for violation of the Hair/Make-Up policy, disaggregated by race and gender, since 2012.

Mystic Valley is allowed 10 business days to provide an initial response.

DESE also requests annual data on expulsions, relocation of students to alternative settings, and emergency removals. Mystic Valley did not report any such incidents between 2012 and 2016.

AG concerns

In a recent letter to Mystic Valley and the state Board of Education, over 30 civil rights organizations called on the school to permanently abandon a hair policy that has been blasted by Attorney General Maura Healey for appearing to disproportionately affect black students.

At least one student, sophomore Lauren Kayondo, was suspended this spring for refusing to remove extensions from her braids, while two other students, twin sisters Mya and Deanna Cook, accrued detention time and were banned from extracurricular activities for wearing extensions, though they were not suspended.

On Sunday, Mystic Valley's Board of Trustees voted to suspend the hair policy through the end of the school year and allow Mya and Deanna to return to their spring athletic teams. But the school also argued that its stringent dress code and hair/make-up policy have helped African-American students succeed.

"Our African-American students have higher MCAS and SAT scores than African-American students from all other districts in the region, and nearly all attend college," the school said in its letter to families. "Our dropout and attrition rates for African-American students are not only lower than those in sending districts, but they are lower than Caucasian rates."

The school added: "The role that our Uniform Policy plays in these results, and those of all our students, is not insignificant."

But in demanding that Mystic Valley stop enforcing the hair policy, the Attorney General's Office suggested, at least anecdotally, that white students may be treated more leniently.

"[W]e have found photographs on social media sites (some belonging to the school and school officials) that show students in clear violation of the Hair/Make-Up policy," the Attorney General's Office wrote, "including a number of white students with 'shaved sides' and 'coloring, dying [sic], lightening ... or streaking."

A number of students, including Mya and Deanna Cook, have reported similar selective enforcement by school officials.

"Although we share MVRCS’s stated concerns about 'promoting equity' and 'reducing visible gaps between those of different means,' the foregoing portions of the Hair/Make-­Up policy are not reasonably tailored to those goals, if they bear any relation at all," Healey's office said.

Mystic Valley has said it will cooperate with the Attorney General's Office to review its uniform policy this summer.

Meanwhile, the Cook family and supporters have demanded that the school permanently eliminate its hair policy and wipe all related punishments from students' disciplinary records.

The Legal Defense Fund and other civil rights groups have been retained by the Cooks to explore legal action against the school.